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\n\tElin Hilderbrand is opening up about her many books that are being adapted for the small and big screen. At Nantucket Film Festival\u2019s \u201cFlipping the Script: Bestsellers to Screen\u201d panel on Sunday, Hilderbrand was joined by Jenna Lamia, the showrunner of \u201cThe Perfect Couple\u201d and the team from the upcoming \u201cFive-Star Weekend\u201d series, writer and producer Bekah Brunstetter, UCP executive Jen Gwartz, NBCUniversal\u2019s Lisa Katz and producer Sue Naegle.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Five-Star Weekend\u201d is currently in production, starring Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, Chlo\u00eb Sevigny, Gemma Chan, D\u2019Arcy Carden and Timothy Olyphant. But it\u2019s one of many in the works for Hilderbrand, whose first adaptation was \u201cThe Perfect Couple.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cJenna and I are developing the \u2018Winter Street\u2019 series with Netflix,\u201d she laughed on the panel before diving into other adaptations coming. \u201cI have a project going with Universal, which I won\u2019t talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGwartz gave her permission to say which<\/em> series she was referring to, but not what platform it will be on. \u201cThe \u2018Paradise\u2019 series, which is set on St. John, is with Universal,\u201d said Hilderbrand. \u201cAnd then \u201928 Summers\u2019 is in development. And my novel \u2018The Academy,\u2019 that I wrote with my daughter, which is coming out in September, is in development. And \u2018The Hotel Nantucket\u2019 is in development.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe continued, \u201c\u2018Summer of \u201969\u2019 was with Sony and went upside down, and I\u2019ve had lots of projects go upside down. I had \u2018The Identicals\u2019 at Hulu\u2026 that went upside down. It is so hard to get something made. All the stars have to align, so when I\u2019m talking about these projects that are in development, some of them might not get made, but it\u2019s looking better for me now than it was!\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tElin Hilderbrand, Jenna Lamia, and Bekah Brunstetter during Flipping the Script: Bestsellers to Screen with Elin Hilderbrand<\/span> \n\tDuring the audience Q&A, she was asked what she meant by \u201cupside down\u201d and elaborated on her shows that didn\u2019t make it off the ground.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFor example, \u2018The Identicals,\u2019 we shopped around Hollywood. We had some offers. We went with Hulu. Hulu was in development with the writers\u2026 The writers had the first script and the rest of the season mapped out, and they took it into Hulu, and they passed,\u201d she said. \u201cSo at that point, it\u2019s dead letter office. That also happened with \u2018Summer of \u201969.\u2019 Sony bought it. We had great writers. The script was amazing, and they couldn\u2019t sell it\u2026 It happens all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen discussing Season 2 of \u201cThe Perfect Couple,\u201d she played coy, as the show has not yet been officially renewed at Netflix and was planned, originally, as a limited series. However, it\u2019s been reported that a second season will be made based on her \u201cSwan Song\u201d book.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf a Season 2 is made, it will be called \u2018The Perfect Couple.\u2019 If a Season 2 is made, it will be based on my novel \u2018Swan Song.\u2019 That I can say,\u201d she said. When asked whether Joanna Calo would showrun the potential second season, she replied, \u201cIf Season 2 is made, Joanna Calo will be the showrunner. Did I have drinks with her this week? I did.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLamia and Hilderbrand also talked about the evolution of Season 1 of the very successful \u201cThe Perfect Couple\u201d; it took many years and wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt had a five-year roller coaster ride to getting made. It was a pilot for Fox. It was a network show, and then it wasn\u2019t, and then we almost made it in Singapore with Singaporean actors,\u201d said Lamia. <\/p>\n \n\tThe series changed a bit from the jump as well, as Netflix had a bit of a different vision \u2014 but Hilderbrand gave Lamia \u201cblanket permission\u201d to change whatever she needed to.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFor those of you who read the book and said, \u2018It\u2019s nothing like the show,\u2019 Netflix really wanted a six-episode murder mystery. So there\u2019s a lot about the love affairs in the book, but those didn\u2019t quite [make it in]. I think you and I both felt, \u2018Oh, we wish we\u2019d had two more episodes to dive into the love stories.\u2019 But that is not what Netflix wanted,\u201d the author said. \u201cAnd it was fine, because I feel like, as a six-episode murder mystery, it\u2019s one of the best out there, and it\u2019s beautiful. I was very happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLamia added, \u201cThe screen time was needed for the murder mystery and intrigue, and it took on a darker comedic tone. Things just evolve over time, especially as a director gets involved, and then cast members get involved, and you start rewriting for them. Things begin to shift; the Tag character shifted so much once Leiv [Schreiber] signed on. There were things that we were sad to lose along the way, but we gained so much. I didn\u2019t know it was going to be as funny as it ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor Hilderbrand, she reminds her readers who aren\u2019t always thrilled with an adaptation of one thing: \u201cEverybody can read the book, and then you can enjoy the show. It\u2019s two separate experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elin Hilderbrand is opening up about her many books that are being adapted for the small and big screen. At Nantucket Film Festival\u2019s \u201cFlipping the Script: Bestsellers to Screen\u201d panel on Sunday, Hilderbrand was joined by Jenna Lamia, the showrunner of \u201cThe Perfect Couple\u201d and the team from the upcoming \u201cFive-Star Weekend\u201d series, writer and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2304,2306,2302,2303,2305,225],"class_list":{"0":"post-9762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-adaptations","9":"tag-couple","10":"tag-elin","11":"tag-hilderbrand","12":"tag-perfect","13":"tag-season"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Walker\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n